102 qualifiers close to the money

What a day! The seventh of eight starting days for the €250 Holiday Main Event brought together 535 entrants to swell the tournament field to 1,697 entrants and the prizepool to €341,776. The Circus Casino Resort in Namur is always busy.

Namur usually pays 15% of the field and 255 players should more or less enter the money to share this huge prizepool. With the 155 qualifiers from the first 6 sessions, the 102 qualifiers from Day 1G and a Day 1H at the end with around 60 players... that's less than 300 players... the ITM won't be far away when the action resumes on Saturday in blinds 5000 - 10 000 (10 000). 

Among the 102 survivors of this huge starting day, it was Knut Berntsen (photo) who proved the most efficient. The Norwegian bagged up 704,000 chips, a fortune as the game is set to be punctuated by the approach of the bubble right from the start on Saturday.

Morten Faas, Gilles Frère, Fred Davidts, Danny Ehrenberger, Danny Ummels, Parkas Somer, Clauss Spieckrmann, Bertrand Lucas, Andres de Bruin, Marcel Diel, Paul Verhuel, Richard Teulings and Daniel Tordjman also booked their tickets for the rest of the competition...

45 qualifiers on the final flight, 304 players on Day 2

After 15 levels of 15 minutes each, 45 players have packed in chips for Saturday's 2 p.m. Day 2. This brings the provisional attendance for Day 2 to 304 players, a figure which could fall as some players have brought in chips after several flights and will only be able to keep the largest stack on the resumption on 5,000 - 10,000 (10,000). 

Cristinel Grecinc (pictured) did the best work on Day 1H Turbo, finally bagging up 634,000 chips for a superb stack at the restart. Cristinel is freerolling in this tournament, having participated in Day 1E and taken his share of the badbeat jackpot by witnessing a heads-up heads-up battle. 

Omar Lakhdari, Gilles Masaud, Somsong Intharanop, Leandro Gaone, Dominique Potenza, Gregory Biermans and Heidi Croonenbergh have also cleared the hurdle and will be taking part this weekend. A prizepool of over €341,000 will be up for grabs, and should be shared between the last 255 survivors. 

Partial chipcount Day 1H (full chipcount and redraw in the documentbelow as soon as possible & Day 2)
Cristinel Grecinc 634 000
Dominique Potenza 615 000
Rachid Hakimi 574 000
Leandro Gaone 417 000
Mitchell Thomassen 415 000
Gregory Biermans 409 000
Negming Wang 368 000
Omar Lakhdari 296 000
Gianni Lodi 265 000
Somsong Intharanop 127 000
Heidi Croone 113 000
Gilles Masaud 102 000

Day 2 REDRAW

50.000€ winnings, 239 paid places

Play resumes with 304 players for 239 paid seats and blinds 5000 - 10 000 (10 000). The average is 28 blinds and the levels are now 40 minutes... shuffle up & deal!

Jean-Pierre Cruccas jumped straight to the start, eliminated by Christianus Lovrencevic... he won't be getting his hands on the €50,000 first prize or the €390 min-cash.


Main Event Holiday (1697 entrants - €341,776 prizepool)
Winner €50,000
Runner Up - €32,350
3rd - €23,125
4th - €17,800
5th - 13 780€
6th - 10 550€
7th - 8 110€
8th - 6 235€
9th - 4 796€

10th and 11th - 3 690€
12th and 13th - 3 075€
14th and 15th - 2 560€
16th and 17th - 2 140€
18 to 20e - 1 860€
21 to 23e - 1 620€
24 to 27e - 1 410€
28 to 31e - 1 225€
32 to 39e - 1 065€
40 to 55e - 925€
56 to 71e - 805€
72 to 95e - 700€
96 to 119e - 640€
120 to 143e - 535€
144 to 183e - 465€
184 to 223e - 425€
224 to 239e - 390€

One Outgoing Minute

Ten minutes of play, ten eliminations... the bubble should burst a little after an hour's play if the pace doesn't change. The 239 players in the money can celebrate with a snack!

Some clever ones haven't arrived yet, while others have already jumped. For Cyril Jacquin, Gilles Masaud and Pierre le Moing, it's already over, as it was for Erwin Vu Duc, who returned with 5 blinds.

Finito also for Patrick Resseler, Francesco Dispenza, Jae Kaung and Geert Swinkels...

New Level

41 exits in 40 minutes on the first level of play on Day 2 of the Holiday, which brought together 1,697 entrants. From 304 at the start of the day, there are now just 263 at the start of level 6000 - 12,000 (12,000).

With an average of 322,000 chips, pressure is mounting on the shorts. For Luc Boeckx, Johannes Brouwers, Theo Erkamps, Bregt Winters and Medhi Maroufi, there will be no paid seat. The same goes for Guillaume Bazoge, Chenda Ly, Greg Dewinne, Giuseppe Farrugio, Anthony Dasbourg and Anne Trebitsch...

Money is coming

After an hour's play, the game continues in blinds 6000 - 12,000 (12,000) and with 243 players for 239 paid seats, the money is getting dangerously close on Day 2 of the €250 Holiday Main Event. 

Thomas Denzl, Ismael Joly, Romain Ott, Pascal Honai, Pierre Pezzuto, Dawood Boutros, Dana Kolatka, Michael Berhane, Somsong Intharanop and Andre Carlier left empty-handed... 

Bulle Express

WhileAlain Fleurent gave up, the organization announced the start of the hand-to-hand at the end of the current deal. Jhon Lienard was placing a 3-bet following an open from David Olurebi. 

David pays and discovers a Ten 4 3 flop on which his opponent sends 155,000 chips and all-in. It's paid with Ten and 9 suit... there are two Kings in front but the crouper directly unpacks a 9 to reduce the field to 240 players, one elimination away from the money. 





As Jhon leaves the playing area, the field swells to 239 players, all assured of a €390 min-cash. In the secondary room, it's Benoit Mahoux who surrendered his arms during the hand marking the end of the game before the hand for hand without spectator or witness! 

No extended bubble, the field has grown from 304 players to 239 winners who begin to share a total prize pool of €341,776. 

In a few minutes, the blinds will rise to 8,000 - 16,000(16,000), which should jump very quickly with an average of 28 blinds... 

Pop-Corn

There's a lot going on, as each of the 239 players in the money tries to position themselves in the race for the €50,000 first prize. Absent since the resumption, Cedrik Domingos finally jumped, €390 richer, since although his 120,000 chips gradually melted away, he still had 4,000 when he entered the money! 





25 players jumped within ten minutes of entering the money... and Daniel Tordjman tried to get the job done. Aggressive t in every shot, Daniel lost a small flip river to go up to 1 million against Joao Faria. Joao climbed to 350,000 while the Frenchman dropped to 850,000 pawns. 

Tordjman will drop to 550,000 two minutes later when he loses queens to ace-king at Harrie SnijdersThe latter climbed to 750,000 pawns thanks to a king on the flop. All in good spirits! 

David Ethuin (550,000) is at the table, while Daniel Pirlot (850,000) is just behind. Nadir Guendouze (750,000), Pierre Neuville (600,000) and Fedele Ricota (400,000) are all on the pace, while Norway's Jon Present (1,000,000) hasn't lost his cool either... 

180 players at the first break

Resumption on blinds 10,000 - 20,000 (20,000) with 180 players guaranteed a €465 payout. The game restarts with an average of 23 blinds, still on 40-minute levels.

Chipcount
Clyde Tjaw Foe 1,525,000
Reda Belkhou 1,500,000
Jon Present 1,350,000
Pierre Neuville 1,300,000
Claude Frisque 1,200,000
Finn Saul 1,200,000
Thibault Fournier 1,150,000
Cedric Heyvaert 1,100,000
Daniel Dodet 1 100 000
Kris Coeckelbergh 1 025 000
Daniel Pirlot 1 000 000
Norman Bultot 915 000
Wai Tang 900 000
Christoph Rech 900 000
Javier Dominguez 860 000
Saman Ziarati 835 000
Willem de Jong 800 000
David Ethuin 750 000
Mohamed Boulkhrif 750 000
Vincent Parilla 740 000
Amber de Visser 730 000
Aschraf Khader 700 000
Salvatore Sablone 700 000
Heinz Peters 700 000
Hernan Benito Castro 700 000
Mihai Nichifor 700 000
Mihai Stinca 680 000
Gianni Lodi 650 000
Tony Joan 630 000
Michael Verjans 600 000
Harrie Snijders 600 000
Alei Cherif 600 000
Mathias van Der Perre 550 000
Dario Sorrenti 550 000
David Olurebi 480 000
Jean-Michel Moyenne 460 000
Donovan Kool 400 000
Jawad Bengourane 360 000

535€ in your pocket

The blinds have just been raised to 10,000 - 25,000 (25,000) and the skimming continues on Day 2 of the Holiday Main Event. The 137 players in the running are guaranteed €535 and Francesco Pillitteri has just given up, eliminated by Arnaud Danes who shook his fist on the river.

Wesley Peinen is still in the money with an average of 614,000 chips, while Rachid Sekkai (161st), Dominique Potenza, Maxime Servais, Raphael Canta, Parkas Somer, Daniel Tordjman (182nd) and Gilles Frere, Bjorn Frings, Stephane Balser Benoit Tombeur, Patrick Aerts and Sabri Philips are all in the money... 

Top 100

The blinds are now 15,000 - 30,000 (30,000) and a break will take place in around 20 minutes... The average has climbed to 814,000 chips and Chau Han Soo has just given himself some air with a double-up, heading for the average or close to it.

Ivo Hermans, Gaetano Moreci, Omar Lakhdari (155th), Xavier Salcede (146th), Avo Hoe, Dario Sorrenti (130th), Harrie Snijders (121st) and François-Louis Vlassis (109th) have all left a tournament which they had animated... there are still 100 players left out of the 1,697, i.e. just under 5.9% of the starting field!

Min-cash

They slipped into the 239 paid seats but disappeared within five minutes of the ITM... For those who came, that is. Cedrik Domingos even came close to going one step further, he didn't show up and his 120,000 chips at the start of Day 2 were enough! 

425€ in your pocket

Break

Play resumes on blinds 20,000 - 40,000 (40,000) with 89 players in contention and an average of 952,000 chips. Millionaire stacks are now legion...

Shahran Rastegani (center of photo) has been cleaning up since the bubble burst, surrounded by Robin Splendido on his left and Richard Breuskin on his right... 

Chipcount
Shahran Rastegani 3 200 000
Joao Faria 2 500 000
Djamel Rezai 2 400 000
Richard Breuskin 2 400 000
Kris Coeckelbergh 1 900 000
Reda Belkhou 1 800 000
Salvatore Sablone 1 800 000
Marcellus van der Wolf 1 800 000
Daniel Pirlot 1 700 000
Lucas Bertrand 1 600 000
Markus Sippe 1 450 000
Clayde Terlaan 1 400 000
Javier Dominguez 1 400 000
Julien Laniez 1 400 000
Wesley Peinen 1 325 000
Sebastien Lonnoy 1 300 000
Giuliano Beerensteyn 1 300 000
Sajjad Miah 1 200 000
Marc Thumelaire 1 150 000
Benjamin Blond 1 100 000
Arnaud Danes 1 100 000
Mohamed Boulkhrif 1 100 000
Willem de Jong 1 000 000
Mihai Stinca 1 000 000
Mickael Tambute 920 000
Michel Peeters 900 000
Matthias Van der Perre 900 000
Clyde Tjaw Foe 830 000
Danny Ehrenberger 825 000
Rene Hermani 750 000
Neven Papic 700 000
Stefan Schmitz 650 000
Nadir Guendouze 350 000

465€ and gone...

Top 4%

With just three minutes to go before the 25,000 - 50,000 blinds (50,000), only 74 players remain in the running for this Holiday Main Event, which has attracted 1,697 entrants. Norman Bultot gave up, the Belgian had 9 blinds when Day 2 resumed. 

"I'm disappointed, I went up to 1.5 million and lost a big shot... 8s against 7s and it's square. Then I got two barrels and had to give up, it goes fast", Norman finishes in 77th place for €700. Bertrand Libert, Julien Evora or Dang Nguyen and Fathi Khalfaoui also disappeared in the final minutes...  

After this round, it's time for a dinner break, between 8:02pm and 9:35pm. We'll be back for two or three more levels... 

535€ and voilà

610€... heading for the High-Roller? 

700€ and rail

805€ in your pocket

Dinner Break 

At the dinner break on Day 2, only 3.1% of the starting field remain in the €250-entry Holiday Main Event. The 54 survivors are guaranteed a €925 payout, and will return for at least two 40-minute levels at 9.40pm...

La partira will resume on blinds 30,000 - 60,000 (60,000) with an average chip count approaching 1.5 million...

Chipcount
Shahram Rastegari 3,900,000
Marc Thumelaire 3,800,000
Kris Coeckelbergh 3,200,000
Bilal Marzouk 3,000,000
Richard Breuskin $2,900,000
Daniel Pirlot $2,500,000
Hendrikus van der Heijden 2,400,000
Alexis Renard $2,250,000
Djamel Rezai $2,200,000
Markus Sippe 2,100,000
Benjamin Blond $2,100,000
Salvatore Sablone 2,000,000
Daan Hoeben 2,000,000
Mihai Nichifor 1,850,000
Mosjin El Yacoubi 1,800,000
Michel Peeters 1,800,000
Clayde Terlaan 1,750,000
Wang Tai 1,700,000
Joao Faria 1,700,000
Aschraf Khader 1,700,000
Matthias van der Perre 1,650,000
Amber e Visser 1,550,000
Wesley Peinen $1,200,000
Nadir Guendouze $1,150,000
Negming Wang 1,000,000
Christoph Rech 950,000
Knut Berntsen 900,000
Giulliano Beerensteyn 900,000
Willem De Jong 800,000
Arnaud Danes 800,000
Fred Heyvaert 530,000

Final packaging

The blinds have climbed to 40,000 - 80,000 (80,000) with an average of 2 million and there will be a further increase in blinds before the end of the day. Two levels remain for the 41 Main Event Holiday survivors. 

Neven Papic, Finn Saul, Nadir Guendouze, Gregory Biermans, Anthony Holderbeke or even Vincent Parilla have jumped. "It's getting hard," confides Alexis Renard even though he's sailing just below the average... the feat is there, however, since he's the tournament survivor with the smallest stack at the start of Day 2, 78,000 chips and 8 small blinds! 

Leading the dinner break with 4 million, Shahram Rastegari (photo) doesn't seem to have been overwhelmed from behind!

925€ but no Day 3

These players won't have the pleasure of trying to win the €50,000 first prize on 50-minute levels... 

Top 2%

Only 35 players remain in the running on Day 2 of the Holiday Main Event... with 27 minutes left on the clock at level 26, the final level of the day.

The blinds are now 50,000 - 100,000 (100,000) with an average of 24 blinds, and there are no more women in the running followingAmber de Visser 's exit in 37th place. Nengming Wang (41st) also retired recently...

To win more than €1,065, you'll need to finish in the Top 31 in the main tournament of the back-to-school festival...

Bustos

Day 2 of the Holiday Main Event saw the field reduced from 304 to 32 players over 11 40-minute levels. Qualifiers for Day 3, which kicks off at 2pm with 50-minute levels, are guaranteed €1,065 to compete for a €50,000 first prize!


Just before the final 4 hands, Benjamin Blond disappeared after opening with 13 blinds at the beginning of the hand. Daniel Pirlot 3-bet all-in from the small blind with Ace 9... and Benjamin called with the 9s to bow out after a cruel Jack Ten King Jack Queen board! Daniel went on to bag nearly 4 million. 

At an adjacent table, Eufrasio Piano lost out in 33rd place. Eufrasio found himself short-stacked after a 70-30 loss, first doubling up to 7 blinds with King 3 suit against 8 and 9 before putting it all back in with King Queen. He was paid by Pim van Wieringen whose 6s held to propel him to 3.7 million. 

Salvatore Sablone chipleader at 32 left

Day 2 of the €250 Holiday Main Event saw the field of 304 players whittled down to 32 qualifiers for the final round.

Assured of a €1,065 payout, the survivors of this field of 1,697 entrants will return on Sunday at 2pm to battle it out over 50-minute levels... with a €50,000 first prize in their sights. The conclusion of the tournament will be broadcast live from the Circus Casino Resort in Namur.

With 239 places paid, it took less than an hour to hold the ITM. Players in the money began to share out just over €341,000 in prizepool prize money, with the likes of Pierre Neuville, Norman Bultot, Clayde Tjaw Foe, Emile Custine, Robin Splendido, Mihai Stinca, Dang Nguyen, Fred Davidts and François-Louis Vlassis going for a new HendonMob line without making it to Day 3. 

There are still 32 players in the running, and it's one of Namur's regulars who's in pole position. Salvatore Sablone (above left) was at the table where the badbeat jakcpot fell, cashing for just over €1,000 on the spot... and luck hasn't deserted him since.

The Belgian bagged up 5.5 million chips after being in a bad position in the middle of a day that spanned 11 40-minute levels. He made the cut and is now ahead of Reda Belkhou (below).

The Frenchman went three against three at the start of the day when he was already the biggest stack at the table, piled on non-stop afterwards and, despite a less crazy end to the day, finished with 4.4 million, ahead of the man who held the Yellow Jersey for a very long time, Shahram Rastegari (4.3 million).

Arnaud Danes, 8th in the provisional rankings, bagged 3.5 million. The game will resume on 60,000 - 120,000 (120,000), so the Frenchman is very close to the leading trio. Ahead of Danes, Marc Thumelaire (3.9 million), Daniel Pirlot (4 million) and Djamel Rezai (4.2 million) have been at the forefront throughout Day 2 and are shaping up as serious contenders.

With fewer chips, he will return with 2.2 million, but Wesley Peinen has the experience to turn things around. Five players will return with 10 blinds or less, including Fedele Ricotta and Alexis Renard, who was already short 8 blinds going into Day 2...

Don't miss the conclusion of this back-to-school tournament, on Sunday from 2 p.m... with 10 French players, 9 Belgians and 8 Dutch, the battle for the title promises to be exciting!